


Sound and Reflection

by Fan_People_Anonymous



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 18:31:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18212021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fan_People_Anonymous/pseuds/Fan_People_Anonymous
Summary: Five takes a moment to think. This changes the course of time.or, Five is there when they lock Vanya up.





	Sound and Reflection

Five gave Diego one last glance over his shoulder. Diego didn't answer him, opting to stare at the mess of glass left from the vase thrown at his head a few moments prior, obviously contemplating. Five shook his head and walked out with Dolores in his arms, deciding to leave him to it and get busy. He was planning on returning Dolores to her friends; simple enough, considering they had just stopped the apocalypse. 

Five barely made it to the other room before stopping dead on his tracks with a sharp breath, his hold on Dolores tightening.

They had stopped the apocalypse.

He had quite a while to mull it over, but the actual realization hadn’t hit him until that exact moment, frozen mid-step with a faraway stare as he held a mannequin.

Maybe it was how anti-climatic it all became in the end. No grand finale, no out-with-a-bang, it was simply just: the world basically saved itself.

And wasn’t that a slap to the face? Forty-five or something years completely dedicated to this exact moment, and then what? Just accept it and move on?

He had been living on nothing but one-track missions for as long as he could remember. It was always simple. In the apocalypse world: survive for the day; with the Commission: hit your mark; the past eight days: stop the apocalypse.

He looked down at Dolores in his arms. He realized then and there that, just before deciding to stop and have an existential crisis, he was planning to return her; as another mission, another simple task.

And. Then. What?

A sudden intake of breath; he held it. He had all of the time in the world now, and he didn’t know whether the fact was terrifying or exhilarating. He had time to plan, he had time to live for real, he had time to connect with his family.

Time to heal. He thought bitterly with a wince as a misstep reminded him of the bandaged wound on his side that had him limping.

Time to rest. He decided with an exhale as the realization reminded him of how exhausted he was; how exhausted he has been for decades on end. 

And now? Well, he had time. Time to plan and organize, time for the future. Heck, he had time to place Dolores back with her friends later on.

“Time to rest.” He repeated out loud, a sigh relaxing his tense shoulders. He could pass out right then and there. 

A thought struck his mind like an arrow, and Five stilled.

...No. No! That can't be it! His work here is not done yet. 

He jumps to his room in a burst of blue. He sets Delores down on the chair by a small, unused desk before plopping himself down unceremoniously on the bed.

There's no way to tell the apocalypse has been properly averted. Sure, Jenkins was dead, but the apocalypse could still be in motion. The apocalypse is a grenade; Jenkins was just the one about to pull the pin. He may be dead now, but the grenade could still very much exist, and Five had no idea whether or not someone has their dirty little hands hovering above that pin, waiting for the right moment to pull.

The butterfly effect is a thing. It's why Luther never even got a chance to have his hands on a bloody glass eye like how he had found him back when he first traveled to the future.

Five suppressed a shudder at the memory.

Five being here has changed things. Just being here has changed the course of how things turned out, little things or otherwise. Who's to say that this isn't one of those things? 

He removed Jenkins from the equation. Who's to say time isn't trying to fix itself and hand the grenade to someone else he never would've even thought of beginning the apocalypse. 

Five held his head in his hands, taking deep breaths as he felt a migraine coming. How would an ordinary dude, as far as he could tell, be responsible for that much damage? Allison had told them that he was a creep, and his attic confirmed it ten times over, but other than being a creep in every sense of the world, Five couldn't fathom just how that loser could have the power to kickstart the apocalypse.

He looked at Dolores in silent pleading. She seems to be just as lost as him, but offered a thought nonetheless: 'Maybe he didn't do it by himself.'

Five groaned and lay back on the bed, hands over his eyes, taking deep breaths. She could be right. Heck, if past experience has been anything to go by she's most likely right. But it's still a dead end. There's no evidence, no leads. He could probably cover the walls of three more rooms in an attempt to calculate the probability of who could've possibly helped Jenkins start the apocalypse, but considering that Jenkins was nowhere near one of the finalists from his earlier attempt to calculate probability of whose death could prevent the end of times, that could probably go nowhere fast.

He sighed, removing his hands from his eyes and tilting his head back, looking out of the window; an upside down dusk decorated the sky, in such a beautiful way that didn't exist in the world he had to live in for most of his life. He allowed himself to bask in it, for a moment. He sighed and closed his eyes once again.

The only thing left to do now is to wait. The world is scheduled to end today, so he'll wait until tomorrow comes, or maybe when the next newspaper is published, one that didn't get a chance to exist. 

When does the newspaper come out, anyway? Sundays, maybe? He couldn't possibly know. He's never had to think about such a thing before. The thought almost made him laugh. Who would've guessed that he would live to see the day where his primary worry is "When does the newspaper come out?'

It's so extraordinarily mundane, like a cup of coffee or enjoying the pretty dusk.

For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to enjoy it.

-

He doesn't remember falling asleep.

He sits up on his bed.

What he does remember, is being suddenly woken up by violent shaking.

Was that an earthquake?

He can't tell, and he doesn't like that. He appreciated the eerie quiet and stillness of the mansion even less. 

He stills and listens, on the edge of his bed, ready to jump at any sudden threat.

Suddenly, he hears it: the distant, echoing shouting and arguing of his siblings. He would shrug it off as just another petty disagreement between them, but something about their tone of voice is too... desperate.

He jumps to the main room downstairs in a hurry. He stops to look around. His siblings aren't there, but he can still hear their retreating forms. 

They're loud.

He follows the telltale sound of Allison's high heels echoing throughout the house and he discovers the sound of mechanical whirring, whining in protest from disuse. 

He's never heard that sound in this house before.

He turns towards the sound and he finds an odd door. An elevator?

Upon closer inspection, he realizes that it's in use. That must've been where the rest went, as evident from the lack of shouting within earshot.

He taps his foot impatiently as he repeatedly presses a button at the wall next to the doors. He would jump, he really would, but jumping someplace he's never been in before, or is not within line of sight, has never proved to be a good thing.

The doors eventually open and he wastes no time getting in. Wishing the darn thing would just hurry up and get him to where his siblings are.

What could've possibly riled them up this time?

The doors are barely open before he jumps through them. A long, cold hallway meets him when he does, in the end, he sees the figures of the ones he was looking for, still arguing, still shouting.

He speed-walks there quietly, trying to keep an ear out; trying to pick up something from the conversation.

The scene he's met with bewilders him to no end.

Luther stands between the rest of the Hargreeves children and a huge, metallic wall behind him. From where Five is, he can't see what exactly is in that wall that would require protecting from. Luther has his arm out, not allowing Allison to get through his as she attempts to shove him in a fit of anger and desperation. Diego and Klaus stand close to them, the former staring daggers at the back of The Spaceboy's head and the latter glancing at the scene with a faraway look on his eyes, hands fidgeting nervously.

"What's going on here?" 

All eyes turn to him suddenly, except for Luther, who stubbornly stares at the back of Allison's head with a mix of concern and protectiveness. 

Allison passes to the previous pages of her notebook until she finds the one she's looking for, showing it to Five.

VANYA. POWERS. 

She points to the wall behind them, and that's when he sees it.

Vanya is trapped on the other side of the wall, her hands banging at the glass as soon as she makes eye contact with Five. She screams; he can't hear her. It's not a wall, he realizes dreadfully, it's a box, a cage.

Too many emotions flare up to even come up with a comprehensible response. Anger, hurt, confusion. He doesn't know how to answer; he doesn't know how to react except curl up his fists.

"What's going on here?" He repeats, venom dripping in his voice.

Allison doesn't write anything in answer, she just looks back at Luther accusingly. Five own eyes follow; he still doesn't know how to feel.

"She's too dangerous-"

"You did this?!" Okay. So anger it is then.

"She has unpredictable, dangerous powers that she doesn't know how to use! She hurt Allison and almost got her killed. We still don't know how to handle-"

"So your brilliant solution is to lock her up?"

"It's just until we find a way to-"

"How did you even know about this place?"

"Apparently dad used it when he first realized that her power was too- "

"Oh! Dad used it?"

"Would you let me finish what I'm saying?!" Luther dropped his hand and took a step towards Five in anger, causing the three around him to back away in fear. Noticing their movements, Luther quickly stepped back and put himself between the door and the rest of the siblings again. 

"Vanya has had powers all this time. Dad found them too dangerous and put her here until he found a solution: making her think she was ordinary and ordering her to take pills regularly to keep it at bay. Obviously, if dad found that to be the only option, then-"

Five scoffed, he rolled his eyes and turned slightly. Unbelievable.

"You're honestly trusting dad's judgment? Look around you!" He motioned to the siblings all gathered around them, each with their own levels of discomfort at the present situation. All except Luther.

"It was that old man's bad decisions that turned our lives miserable. All of you specifically, seeing as you grew up with the idiot!" 

Five walked dangerously close to Luther, somehow staring down at a giant. "When he found out about our powers, the first thing he did was try to find ways to make sure those powers were beneficial to him and his little twisted agendas! His "training" was basically torture. He treated us like weapons; like little soldiers that needed to be trained, and deprived us all of a childhood!"

Five stood one step closer, giving Luther the most venomous glare he could muster, hands curled up into fists at his side, trembling with held-back anger.

"If you're not willing to give your own sister an ounce of compassion, who's to say you're any different from the man?"

Luther looked outraged. He opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't even take a proper breath before Five disappeared in a flash of blue.

The siblings all looked around in mild alarm as Five popped back into existence inside of the cage,

and all sound ceased to exist.

Five stared at Vanya, who hadn't realized he appeared behind her just yet. She probably didn't even notice him disappearing from in front of Luther from her point of view. He watched her continuously hurt her hands against the glass in an attempt to gain the siblings' attention, sobbing out incoherent and desperate apologies.

For a second, Five forgot himself. 

Other than Vanya, he couldn't hear anything else. He became hyperaware at just how loud the world is, from the distant humming of some machine or another, to the breathing of who was next to him. 

Now, all of those noises just vanished. Nothing made its way through that metal door. 

It shouldn't be terrifying. It isn't.

So why isn't he breathing?

"...Vanya" barely a whisper, but it was a bomb compared to the still silence around them. Vanya whipped around. The look of her red, puffy eyes broke Five's heart. She couldn't stop crying.

"Hey, hey. Vanya..." He had no idea how to comfort someone. He decided on stepping closer, holding his hands up to her. Whether he was offering comfort or surrender, neither of them could tell. 

Vanya remained frozen in place. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry" She repeated like a mantra, staring at him.

She looked so tired and afraid.

Five continued to approach carefully.

"Hey, it's okay." She didn't stop apologizing; he got closer. Ever so slowly, he placed his hands on her own trembling ones, giving them a little squeeze. 

He cleared his throat awkwardly, eyes not leaving hers. "We'll figure it out, okay?"

He questioned whether that was the right thing to say as more tears spilled over her eyes. She gripped his hands back. Five had no idea what to do next, but he decided he could probably think about it better when they're finally out of the darn box.

"I'll get you out of here now, okay? And then we're gonna have a chat. We'll figure this out." 

Next thing he knows, her arms are wrapped around him, and she's sobbing into his neck. He freezes in his spot, not knowing what to do. Ever so slowly, he places one hand on her back, awkwardly rubbing it in an attempt at comfort.

"It's okay" He repeated in an effort to slow her continuous apologies. It didn't work.

He tried to pull at the fabric of space with his other hand, observing how it wrinkles under his pull in a blue light show. 

It wasn't working.

He held his breath in a brief panic. His arm wrapped tighter around Vanya. "It's going to be okay." He repeated, he didn't know to whom.

His eyes were wide with panic and he placed his other arm around Vanya after another failed attempt at jumping. He stared through the glass at the scene he had been ignoring his entire time there. 

His jump must've caused a bit of a scene; everyone had jumped into action again. He couldn't hear them, but he could see Diego and Klaus argue against Luther with newfound strength. Allison joined in the form of stares and continuously pointing to the page in her notebook that said LET HER GO.

Luther just stood there, in between all of the muted shouts, staring at Five and Vanya through the glass, an unreadable look on his face.

If Five didn't know any better, he would say that Luther looked tempted to leave them both in the box. 

Thinking it more thoroughly, perhaps he didn't know any better.

Something sparked within Klaus. He could make out what his lips read as he shouted Luther's name. He banged his fist at the mountain of a man. Klaus was pointing at Five and Vanya through the glass, eyes glaring at Luther. Five couldn't make out what he was saying.

Luther argued back. From where Five stood, it looked as if he were barking out his retort. Whatever it is that he said, it caused all three of the siblings around him to reignite in anger. Diego shouted something in protest; Allison threw her notebook at his chest in distress; Klaus stared, mouth agape, red in the face, and fists trembling in anger.

He stood his ground. Speaking in what seemed to be short, sharp, one-worded shouts; steps synchronized with each outburst.

Five seemingly stopped breathing, staring at how Klaus' hands lit up blue as they trembled. Similar to how Five ripped at time and space, Klaus ripped through the veil of life and death, and from the rip, a glowing silhouette stepped out. 

The room stilled.

The silhouette stepped closer to Luther, pointing at him and shouting at him. Luther just stared, mouth agape, probably too stunned to even realize what was being said to him. The silhouette stopped, causing him of not listening. Five tried to read his lips and Luther breathed out;

"Ben?"

No one dared breathe; Five's own got caught in his throat. The silhouette, Ben, shook his head in anger and passed through Luther as if he weren't even there. He was snapped out of his trance by the action. Luther yelled protests, reaching to grab Ben's shoulder.

It phased right through.

With a self-satisfied smirk, Ben reached the door and gave Five a sad, reassuring smile before attempting to pull at the wheel trapping them there. He beckoned the rest to help him. Snapping off his own daze, Diego didn't hesitate to step up.

Luther kept arguing, attempting to keep Diego away from the door. He yelled between them, an arm raised dangerously. 

Ben wasn't having it. He turned around with a shout, tentacles sprouting from his midsection threateningly. Luther stepped back, and Ben retracted, back to attempting to open the door with Diego by his side.

Five's eyes snapped away from the scene as Vanya's legs suddenly gave up on her and her knees buckled, bringing them both down as Five attempted to slow their descent. 

Vanya's breathing was labored, the only thing breaking the absolute silence of the room. Five helped fill it, continuing to murmur nothings at the air.

"We'll get you out here soon."

Five's eyes closed, his entire body tense from too much physical attention, but he didn't dare let go of Vanya.

It's the least he could do at the moment, still dazed and confused at everything that had happened; too many things at once, and not a second to just think and take it all in. The elevator, the box, Ben, Vanya's powers? Their father had already established he was a grade-A-asshole, but the fact that he apparently hid those powers, manipulated Vanya into thinking she was ordinary her whole life, making her feel less deserving than anyone else, locking her here in this box, and who knows what else, really added a new layer to it all.

The fact that they, however unintentional, played a part in this madness. Dismissing her, belittling her, outcasting her, believing everything Reginald had told them about her, hurt the most. The guilt was burning so fierce he could almost feel it physically. 

And now, everything that had just happened just added to it; being locked here again by someone she trusted, and being debated over.

But she was getting out of here, Five promised. And then they'll all have an awkward talk about it, and so help him, God, they will do it right this time. 

He let his head rest against hers with a sad sigh. Silently promising that this time, he will be there for Vanya. 

"I'm sorry" he whispered.

With a metallic clank, sound returned to the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Had this little piece collecting dust in my docs. Lemme know what you think! It's my first time posting any fanfiction. 
> 
> -AceTriesTheirBest


End file.
